pated opposition of her guardian and all the world, and in securing the marriage and happiness of her friend Harriet.

Perhaps the state of her affections kindled this generous enthusiasm; and it certainly lent a peculiar sweetness to her smile and tone, as she exclaimed with downcast eyes, and some little hesitation: -"Once more, Mr. Hunter, I will imitate your candour, and, if I appear to be too easily won, you must attribute it to my hatred of equivocation and deceit. Your manly and ingenuous defence has carried conviction to my mind; has increased-- has satisfiedI mean to say that all my scruples are removed; and, in the firm conviction that your future course of life will justify my present confidence, I confess my my prepossession in your favour, and thus tender you my hand as frankly as you have solicited it."

Utterly confounded at an acceptance not less cordial and flattering than unexpected-for he

little anticipated so quick a decision - Hunter seized the proffered hand, and pressed it to his lips in a speechless bewilderment. He had urged his presumptuous suit in desperation rather than in hope; from a sense of duty to others, not from the impulses of his own heart; and, though he had left nothing undone that might ensure it success, he could not expel from his bosom a latent wish that it might fail. That secret yearning was now for ever disappointed; his self-sacrifice was accomplished, his misery stamped with the seal of perpetuity.

Overwhelmed with gratitude for the confidence and the affections of Helen, his thoughts reverted, nevertheless, to Rose Mayhew, now for ever lost, with a throb of anguish that gave him a foretaste of the life-long martyrdom to which he had doomed himself. Unable, after several ineffectual attempts at coherent speech, to rally his bewildered faculties, he struck his

hand upon his forehead, and rushed out of the

room, ejaculating in a hoarse whisper :-" Toto-morrow I cannot thank you

morrow

now. I am overcome-astounded — air! air! I cannot breathe."

Vain, in the estimation of Helen, would have been the most eloquent effusion of love and gratitude, when compared with this paroxysm of ungovernable emotion, which elicited all the tender sympathies of her nature. Strange,"

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she exclaimed, "that a man whose sensibilities are so acute should have been so cold and unimpassioned, not only in his letter, but in the whole course of our colloquy, up to the very moment when I thawed the frozen barriers of his emotions by." Her soliloquy was interrupted by the sudden though noiseless entrance of Rose, her eyes glaring, her mouth half open, and every feature lighted up with an intense anxiety. Swift as thought, she ran up to Helen, placed her hands upon her shoulders,

peered for an instant into her countenance, and

then, bursting into a wild hysterical laugh, ex

Is not every thing happily settled? Speak! speak! for God's sake, keep me not in suspense."

"Give me but a moment's time, my dear little picture of impatience, and I will tell you all. I cannot yet say that every thing is settled, but I have made more rapid progress than was, perhaps, quite decorous, more than could have been expected by any one unacquainted with the ductility of the female heart, when it is mollified by the affections."

"Every thing, then, is explained, and you have accepted him? One word, only one single word; I ask no more: why, why do you trifle with me?"

"Rather let me ask why are you so petulant? Prythee let my pride and reserve have a gentle descent, and suffer me, like Cæsar, to fall be

comingly. Mr. Hunter's inebriety was an accident which I, of all people, ought not to visit severely, since it arose in some degree from the perturbation and fever of his mind upon my account. Most triumphantly has he refuted the calumnies of Mrs. Skinner and others; and, as to the little infirmities and peccadilloes which we have so often noticed, he admits them candidly, and confirms your repeated averment, that they are solely ascribable to the morbid action of a mind placed in an uncongenial element. Perhaps I have been too sanguine, too pliable, too confiding, but I yielded implicit credence to his tale; I trusted his assurance that better circumstances would make him a wiser and a better man. I believed him when he solemnly pledged himself to dedicate his whole future life to my happiness, andand-and-psha! Why cannot you spare one's blushes. Why do you force me to own that I confessed his affection to be returned,